Variations in water relations, stomatal characteristics, and plant growth between quinoa and pea under salt-stress conditions

Abstract

Livestock production, and small scale and extensive grazing livestock production systems in Pakistan lack longterm sustainability due to declining quantity and quality of green forages and pastures. Information on the nutritional value of range/pasture and cultivated grass species is required to design proper strategies not only for nutritional management of grazing animals, but also for development of good quality forage resources. Therefore, the current study was planned to: (i) analyze the chemical profile of traditional and novel grasses grown in Peshawar; (ii) quantify the methane emission potential of the grass species; and (iii) quantify the differences among species in thei r nutritive value and methane emission. Ten grass species, namely, Sudex (Sorghum × sudangrass), Jumbo grass (Sorghum bicolour× Sorghum sudanefe), Sorghum almum, Pennisetum purpureum, Vetiveria zizanioides, Panicum colaratum, Cynodon dactylon, Bothriochloa pertusa, Splenda setaria and Desmostachya bipinnata were evaluated under uniform agronomic and environmental conditions. The results showed that the contents of all measured chemical components, mineral profile (except Zn), In vitro digestibility of dry matter (DMD), and In vitro gas (GP) and methane-production had large variation among the grass species. Among the grasses, Jumbo grass had greater CP (11.9% DM) content and In vitro DMD (65.9% DM), and produced greater amount of total gas, that contained lowest proportion of methane. In contrast, D. bipinnata had lowest contents of CP (6.3% DM) and In vitro DMD (43.7% DM), and produced lower amount of total gas, with highest proportion methane in total GP. Next to D. bipinnata, V. zizanioides had lower degradability/GP and highest proportion of methane in total gas. The large variation in chemical composition, DMD and methane-emission potential of the summer grass species presents a prospect to select and further develop grass species that have lower methane-emission potential and high nutritional value. Further research is needed to investigate the changes in chemical profile, DMD and methane-emission of forage species between seasons and with maturity.

Growth, Water Relations, and Photosynthetic Activity Are Associated with Evaluating Salinity Stress Tolerance of Wheat Cultivars

“…ese damage effects induced by salt stress suppress the wheat shoot and root growth and therefore negatively affect FW and DW. Moreover, there was a progressive reduction in the wheat's FW and DW weights with increasing NaCl level, which was compatible with previous studies [1,22]. e minimum decrease in the FW and DW in Sakha69 cultivar International Journal of Agronomy might be due to the extraeffective detoxification mechanism, including the antioxidant defence mechanisms.…”

“…e notable decreases were observed with Sakha8, which was the most influenced cultivar by saline conditions, followed by Giza168 and Sakha69 which was the most resistant cultivar to the NaCl salt application. e response of plant growth to salinity stress varies among species and has been reported in many investigations [1,2,5,21,22]. In this consideration, Bacu et al [7] demonstrated that an increase in salt concentration (50, 100, and 200 mM NaCl) induced a significant decrease in the growth criteria (shoot, root, and leaf length) of five wheat cultivars.…”

Screening of Salt Stress Responsive Genes in Brachypodium distachyon (L.) Beauv. by Transcriptome Analysis

“…These differentially expressed TFs indicated that TFs played an important part in response of B. distachyon to salt stress, which could be helpful in understanding the mechanism of salt tolerance. Stomatal opening and wax biosynthesis of epidermal cells in plant leaves alleviate ion-toxicity-induced damage by reducing water loss under salt stress [74][75][76]. One of the physiological responses regulated by ABA is related to stomatal closure, which can prevent excessive transpiration and reduce water loss [25].…”

Effect of Salinity Stress on Various Growth and Physiological Attributes of Two Contrasting Maize Genotypes

“…During the germination under salt stress, the seeds require a higher amount of water uptake due to the accumulation of the soluble solutes around the seeds which cause an increase in osmotic pressure [22]. This results in extreme uptake of the ions which cause ion toxicity in the plant reduced the water potential gradient between external environments and the seed inhibits the primary root emergence [23].…”